1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle that is equipped with a first-wheel motor that can receive/output motive power to/from front wheels, a rear-wheel motor that can receive/output motive power to/from rear wheels, and a battery that can exchange electric power with the front-wheel motor and the rear-wheel motor.
2. Description of Related Art
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-151633 (JP 2005-151633 A), there is disclosed a vehicle that is equipped with an engine, a first generator-motor, a second generator-motor and a brake mechanism. The first generator-motor is connected to the engine and is connected to front wheels via a transmission. The second generator-motor is connected to rear wheels via rotation transmission means having higher transmission efficiency than the transmission. The brake mechanism applies a braking force to the front wheels and the rear wheels. With this vehicle, a target deceleration torque of the vehicle is set at the time of deceleration of the vehicle. The target deceleration torque is guarded by a maximum permissible value of the second generator-motor, and a target braking torque of the second generator-motor is set. A difference between the target deceleration torque and the target braking torque of the second generator-motor is guarded by a maximum permissible value of the first generator-motor, and a target braking torque of the first generator-motor is set. A target braking torque of the brake mechanism is set to a deficiency in the sum of the target braking torques of the first generator-motor and the second generator-motor with respect to the target deceleration torque. Then, the first generator-motor, the second generator-motor, and the brake mechanism are controlled based on the respective target braking torques. Owing to this control, the utilization efficiency of energy at the time of deceleration of the vehicle can be enhanced.